bought a finger lime from a nursery in march. potted in 25gal pot. kept in on the patio, used same fertilizer as for lemon, avocado and tangerine trees but smaller amt. it had only a few buds which fell off with first stiff patio breezes. Nursery guy said it'd be done budding for the year: boo hoo. But about a month and some cool weather later, about 34 buds popped out and fruited. Hot, hot weather spurt started browning the leaves and I read that in Australia they like a canopy so I moved it under a shade tree (filtered light) which it seemed to like much better...no more browning leaves. But I watered it and all but 15 fruit fell off. I pampered it which is hard to do when you don't know what you're doing. Now it's July 15 and suddenly there are tons of buds again! Weather is cool for this time of year and perhaps it's being fooled into thinking it's springtime again. I can't believe it's budded three times though, and I just bought it in March. So far, no mature fruit bud the tiny 1/2" fruits are still hanging on there.

Mine has not been affected by freezes to twenty degrees this winter or the last and has grown from 6 inches to 2.5 feet tall in the last year! I think that native tropicals do better than exotics, since over so many millennia its gotten much colder than this in South Florida. I love the ferny texture on this one, and the fact its evergreen is a huge bonus in winters like this. Here is a link that might be useful: The Rainforest Garden

Here's a list of plants which are said to do well in low light levels, and might be happier in the short days of a Melbourne winter than some others. The asterisks mark the ones which are best at the low light thing. They are all rather undemanding about water, and grow well in "dry" rainforests, so score well on "waterwise" listings. Acronychia oblongifolia Alchornea ilicifolia Alectryon tomentosus Alyxia ruscifolia* Arytera distylis Auranticarpa rhombifolia Baloghia inophylla Canthium buxifolium Cordyline species Croton insularis Cryptocarya microneura * Elattostachys xylocarpa Ficus coronata * Ficus rubiginosa * Flindersia species Glochidion fernandi* Harpullia species Homalanthus nutans Melicope micrococca Neolitsea dealbata Auranticarpa rhombifolia Psychotria loniceroides * Rapanea variabilis Almost all of these are either small trees or shrubs. Ficus coronata is a non-strangling fig which is said have the best flavoured fruits of all the natives, as well as being small enough to grow in a suburban garden. F.rubiginosa is a small strangler - one of those things that is good in a pot and you can do arty things with the lovely snakey roots, but you wouldn't actually want it in the ground near any foundations. (I imagine all the potted figs would do really well in the situation you are proposing). Best of luck. Trish.

My experience with Hymenosporum flavum is from a California perspective, and they grow well here, but do seem to prefer sandy loam soils over heavy clay soils for best year round appearance. Did the leaf drop start to occur after either a prolonged dry period or a cold snap? These two things can cause them to drop foliage here, as well as the roots staying too wet. In fact, this tree can often struggle when planted in pure clay, although as they get larger they seem more tolerant. They also tend to drop leaves with the onset of colder weather, and push rapid new growth when it warms up again. If you know you don't have a drainage problem, I'd suggest you wait to see if it pushes new growth once the height of winter is past, although if you are located in Sydney right on the water, your winter couldn't be all that cold to cause leaf drop. Maybe try an organic or slow release fertilizer to see if that helps... There is also a noticeable difference in vigor of plants within a block of seed grown trees at nurseries here, and I always look for the healthiest specimens over the larger ones when selecting this tree for gardens. It often seems that straggly plants never amount to much here, even after they have settled in. I love using this tree, as it can bloom multiple times from spring into fall, never gets too densely shading, fills the bill when something tall and narrow and evergreen is wanted, and the fragrance is heavenly. Surprising to find that a subtropical rainforest species from Queensland does so well in a summer dry Mediterranean climate, and is even quite frost hardy, easily tolerating down to 22F freezes here, with no permanent damage except complete defoliation.